Dust & Decay(121)

73


CHONG STOOD IN THE SHADOWS AND WATCHED TOM IMURA WALK UP onto the hotel porch. There were two guards there, both of them armed with shotguns. They stiffened as Tom mounted the steps. One guard gestured for him to stop on the top step.



“If you’re here for the games,” he began, “you need to go around—”

Those were his last words. Chong never saw Tom’s hand move. All he saw was a flash of bright steel that seemed to whip one way and then the other, and suddenly both men were falling away from Tom. Blood painted the wall and door of the old hotel.

It was the fastest thing Chong had ever witnessed, and on a deep gut level he knew that it was necessary, but it was also wrong. These men were part of Gameland, they were forcing kids to fight in zombie pits, and yet their lives had ended in the blink of an eye. They were discarded. Tom used chiburi—a kenjutsu wrist-flick technique that whipped all the blood off his sword blade. The sword gleamed as if it had not just been used to take two human lives.

Tom turned as Chong crept up the porch steps. He looked sad. “Sorry you had to see this, Chong.”

“Me too,” said Chong sadly. “Guess we had no choice.”

“Not if we want to save Benny and Nix.”

“This is war,” said Chong. “And these people are monsters.”

Tom put his hand on Chong’s uninjured shoulder. “Listen to me. There are good people too. No matter how bad this gets, kiddo, never forget that. There are more good people than bad.”

Chong said nothing. He absently touched the bite on his other shoulder. “Aren’t you going to quiet them?” he asked.

“No. We need all the help we can get. Let them wander around and confuse things. I’ll take care of them later if there’s time. Right now we have to find Benny, Nix, and Lilah.”

Chong said, “I hope she’s okay.” He was aware that he’d said “she” rather than “them,” but Tom didn’t seem to mind.

“Sorry things didn’t work out with you two,” Tom said. “For what’s it worth … she couldn’t do any better.”

Chong didn’t reply.

Tom quietly opened the front door and stepped inside. And stopped dead. His eyes went wide, and when Chong followed him in, he also stared. On one side of the room, weapons, ammunition, and explosives were stacked from floor to ceiling; on the other were hundreds of smaller, more well-used guns and rifles, each of them hanging on a nail driven into the wall. Small paper tags hung from each trigger guard.

“What is all this?” asked Chong in a hushed voice.

Tom listened for sounds of other people, heard nothing. Then he touched the barrel of one of the new rifles. “Probably scavenged a military base.”

Chong pointed to the older weapons. “And these?”

“They probably collect firearms from everyone who comes to Gameland. They did that before. Keeps people from shooting each other over bets.” He bent and read several of the small tags. “Damn.”

“What’s wrong?”

Tom held out one of the pistols. “Read the tag.”

“Lucille Flax.” Chong looked up, confused. “I don’t understand. Mrs. Flax is my—”

“—math teacher. I know. There’s a shotgun here with Adrian Flax’s name on it. That’s her husband.”

“Wait,” said Chong, “are you trying to say that they’re here? That my math teacher and her husband come to Gameland?”

“How else would you read it?”

“It doesn’t make sense! They’re regular people… . Mrs. Flax doesn’t come to places like this. She can’t!”

“Why not? Chong … no matter how often you see someone, you can’t ever say that you really know them. Everyone has secrets, everyone has parts of themselves that they hide from the world.”

“But … Mrs. Flax? She’s so … ordinary.”

“Well, kiddo, it’s not like people walk around with signs saying, ‘Hey, I’m actually a creep!’”

Chong kept shaking his head. “And I was running home to people like that?”

“Remember what I said. There are more good people than bad. Even so … you always have to pay attention.”

Chong sighed. “I guess this shouldn’t hit me so hard. After all Benny, Morgie, and I used to hang around Charlie and the Hammer all the time. We thought they were—”